


bruise colored boy

by ShyAudacity



Series: Riverdale Prompt Fills [17]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Archie Andrews Needs a Hug, Archie Andrews-centric, Asexual Jughead Jones, Bisexual Archie Andrews, Canon Divergence, Concussions, Delirium, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fights, Fist Fights, Head Injury, Hospitals, Hurt Archie Andrews, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Other, Reggie is a Good Friend, Violence, Whump, Worried Jughead Jones, only mentioned though sorry, tell me if I missed any tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 17:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12939729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: The rain lets up and everyone, mostly the Southside Serpents, flee the scene. Archie, on the other hand, stays there, lying in the middle of the road like some forgotten misfit toy.“Andrews?” A voice calls. “You alright over there?”When Archie doesn’t respond, Reggie comes over, takes one look at him, and then curses under his breath.Reggie kneels in front of his friend, shaking his leg.“Hey, Archie, c’mon, talk to me man.”Archie tries his hardest to speak, but his tongue feels like it isn’t even there. He groans when Reggie pulls him into a sitting position, hates how instantly dizzy he feels. Archie’s head has never hurt so much in all his life.ORanon said: Archie gets really hurt during serpent fight. Everyone worried. Concussed Archie.anon said: Hey! How about an Archie fic about him getting really hurt during that fight with the serpents and everyone’s really worried.





	bruise colored boy

**Author's Note:**

> The end of 2x08 had me s c r e a m i n g. Anyways, here's the fic.
> 
> Unbeta'd and title from a poem I wrote.

After Archie throws the first punch, all hell breaks loose.

It’s chaos like nothing that he’s ever seen before. A bunch of teenage boys going at it in the middle of a rainstorm, in public nonetheless. Things weren’t supposed to get this bad. He had never planned on making enemies with the Southside Serpents, but Archie has to stand his ground somehow. He has to protect his dad, his friends- everyone that he cares about. If it meant fighting a few guys, then he’d do it.

He’s going to keep all of them safe… no matter what it takes.

Given the circumstances, everything seems to be going well. That is until he sees Dilton Doiley pull out his pocket knife.

“Dilton!” Archie cries.

He gets so distracted that he doesn’t see Sweet Pea coming right for him.

Sweet Pea lands a sharp right hook to Archie’s face and he goes down in a second. Then, Sweet Pea kicks him twice in the ribs, _hard_. He just kind of lies there and takes it as Sweet Pea destroys his ribcage; Archie swears that he feels at least one of them break. He wishes for a moment that Jughead was here, then Archie is glad that he’s not. He doesn’t need to bring his boyfriend into this mess, even if Jughead might be joining the Serpents.

At some point, Sweet Pea smashes his head against the ground and Archie’s sees stars.

Sweet Pea yells over the rain, “This is what you get when you mess with the wrong guys, Red.”

Archie can’t bring himself to respond. He begins to lose his bearings shortly after that. The rain lets up and everyone, mostly the Southside Serpents, flees the scene. Archie, on the other hand, stays there, lying in the middle of the road like some forgotten misfit toy.

“Andrews?” A voice calls to him. “You alright over there?”

When Archie doesn’t respond, Reggie comes over, takes one look at him, and then curses under his breath.

Reggie kneels in front of his friend, shaking his leg.

“Hey, Archie, c’mon, talk to me, man.”

Archie tries his hardest to speak, but his tongue feels like it isn’t even there. He groans when Reggie pulls him into a sitting position, hates how instantly dizzy he feels. Archie’s head has never hurt so much in all his life. It’s taking everything he has in him to stay upright; his neck feels like it’s been replaced with a noodle. He looks at Reggie with glazed over eyes and wonders why there’s two of him.

“There’s not- shit, this is bad.”

Archie wants to ask Reggie what’s wrong, seeing as he suddenly can’t remember what he was doing out here in the first place. Why is he all wet? Why does he feel like he got used as a punching bag? Did he get hit by a truck? At some point, he realizes that he feels sick to his stomach, then promptly vomits in between the V of his legs, blind to the fact that his friends are watching. He’s so _tired_.

“Hey, hey, no, don’t nod off of me,” Reggie says, patting Archie’s face. “You gotta stay awake, bro.”

Archie tries to move away from him and fails miserably, almost falling over if not for Reggie holding onto his shoulders, keeping him upright.

“Andrews, c’mon we gotta take you to a hospital- hey, somebody call Jughead or something!”

“Jug?” Archie slurs, perking up at his name.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna call your little boyfriend, don’t worry.”

Archie doesn’t know why Reggie would say that. He and Jughead had agreed not to tell anyone that they were dating. They both knew it would just stir up drama at school, and across the town for that matter. They hadn’t wanted to make a big deal out of things when it wasn’t anyone else’s business in the first place.

He must nod off for a minute because the next thing that he knows he’s in Reggie’s truck, a plastic bucket in front of him. The pain in his head has practically doubled, the fact that Reggie seems to drive over every pothole on the road isn’t helping.

“C’mon, just two more minutes,” Reggie says a little too loudly. “Don’t black out on me again.”

Archie groans. He feels like he’s stuck on a roller coaster and he wants to _get off_.

In what feels like seconds later, Reggie is pulling him out of the truck, all but dragging him into the emergency room. All of the bright lights and bustling noises are too much, Archie thinks he’s going to be sick his stomach again. Instead, someone helps him onto a gurney, and within seconds he’s dead to the world.

***

The first thing that Archie thinks to himself when he wakes up is: _these are not my sheets._

He opens his eyes and immediately regrets it, shutting them again. He’s got a headache like you wouldn’t believe. All of the lights in the room only make it worse. Cracking one eye open, he sees Jughead sitting at his bedside, holding the inside of Archie’s wrist tenderly.

“Jug,” Archie rasps. “Jughead.”

Jughead’s eyes fly open, immediately landing on Archie. All the tension in his shoulders seems to fall away; he tightens his grip on Archie’s wrist.

“Hey, hey Arch. Can you tell me what happened?”

Archie has to think about it for a minute before the fight finally comes back to him, winces when he remembers how Sweet Pea had slammed his head into the ground and everyone fled.

“There was a fight.” He whispers. “Head hurts.”

“Shit, right, hold on.” Jughead says, getting up.

The lights in the room are dimmed a few seconds later, and the pain in his head lessens just a little bit. Archie reaches for Jughead’s hand when he comes back, curling their fingers together.

“Where’s dad?”

“He stepped out for a minute to call your mom,” Jughead tell him. “You’ve been in and out for about a day. Nearly gave him a heart attack, no surprise there.”

Archie sighs, kicking himself internally for doing that to his dad. After everything that’s gone on this year, Fred doesn’t need to be worrying about Archie’s safety on top of everything else. Archie knows that he’ll be apologizing to his dad about this forever. He looks over at Jughead whose gaze is locked on his shoes; his expression is uncharacteristically unreadable for once.

“Are you okay?” Archie asks him, tightening his grip for a second.

Jughead looks up at him, a heartbroken look spreading across his face. Archie knows within a second that he never wants to see Jughead make that face ever again.

“You scared the shit out of me Andrews.” He says quietly. “When your Dad called he couldn’t tell me how bad it was and then I got here and-… you looked like a ghost who had just lost a boxing match, Arch. The first time that you woke you were delirious, barely remembered who I was or how you had gotten here in the first place. It was hard to watch… you being so helpless like that.”

Archie immediately feels guilty for starting this mess, for worrying his Dad and Jughead. He wants so badly to go back in time and take it all back, to have just kept his mouth shut and not start a fight with the Serpents.

“I’m so sorry.” He says, tears pricking at his eyes. It feels stupid- the crying- but he can’t stop himself. He’s overwhelmed and dizzy, it’s too much.

“Hey, hey, baby no, don’t-,” Jughead says under his breath. “Don’t be sorry, alright? I know you didn’t mean for this to happen.”  

It doesn’t make him feel any better, but Archie appreciates Jughead for saying it.

Jughead moves his thumb across Archie’s face, wiping away the wet trails that the tears left. He moves closer, sitting on the edge of the bed. Jughead holds Archie’s hand in one of his, using the other to run his fingers up and down Archie’s arm. He continues to do so until Archie is relaxed again, until he looks to be two seconds from dozing off.

“Go back to sleep,” Jughead tells him. “… the rest of the world will still be here when you wake up. Alright?”  

Archie nods half-heartedly as he drifts off, desperately trying not to think about this mess that he’s made. He’s going to fix all of this somehow… he has to.  

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading! Lemme know what you thought about it with a comment or a kudos. If you wanna talk Riverdale, you can find me on tumblr as archieandrewsprotectionsquad. Thanks again for reading, have a great day!


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